


Back from space, what have I missed? (A lot)

by DonttellNightwing



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Batkids Age Reversal, Canon Temporary Character Death, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Jason Todd dies, Jason Todd is Robin, Not Beta Read, Reverse Robins, Reverse Robins AU, Tim Drake is Red Robin, damian came first, then cass, then jason, then steph, then tim, though the age differances are differant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:35:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25396249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DonttellNightwing/pseuds/DonttellNightwing
Summary: Tim comes back from a mission and finds out about Jason's death.
Relationships: Tim Drake & Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake & Jason Todd
Comments: 5
Kudos: 98





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Just a random au I had kicking about in my head.  
> Ages:  
> Damian-21  
> Tim-16  
> Jason-9(or 10)  
> Dick-4(not shown)

Tim knew something was wrong the second they landed.  
As the ship descended and touched down on the top of Titans tower, he noticed the distinct lack of one person. He usually didn’t expect anyone greeting him after missions with hugs and congratulations on not dying, but Batman was always there after them for the report, even after their most rough, brutal arguments that ended in blows. He wouldn’t forget. He remembered telling Bruce the approximate date which, since no complications occurred, was dead on.   
He even sent him a message an hour before entering Earth’s atmosphere.  
Usually he wasn’t this insistent. Normally he would just give Bruce the date they were supposed to arrive, and sometimes he wouldn’t even mention it. Bruce could find out himself.  
This time was different, though. Less then a week ago was Jason’s birthday and he wanted to spend a bit of time with his replacement.  
They didn’t have the best relationship, unfortunately, and he wanted to change that.  
Before Jason had arrived, Bruce had begun to notice Tim spending more time away from Gotham, and really, who could blame him? Damian had always had an icy disposition, especially to Tim, who he saw as a threat to his position as son. Bruce was Bruce, and Tim could bet he was the same in every universe. Tim had found a family in the teen titans, so he stayed with them often.  
Jason showed up after a pretty big argument. Tim had gotten shot, Damian was being an ass, and Bruce had thrown up the overprotective wall. He needed to get away, so he had Steph pick him up and drive them to an airport and fly to San Francisco. A couple weeks later he found another kid in the Batcave. In his suit.  
He had stormed out without even greeting Alfred.  
He spent most of the past two years away and ignoring Gotham. Sometimes he would visit the manor, but it would always end with fighting against Bruce or Damian, though Damian was in Bludhaven, so it wasn’t common for them to see each other. Jason always seemed to come up in the arguments.  
He had made Robin for himself. No one else.  
When Jason took the cape officially, he took Red Robin sullenly.  
Now, though, he Just felt bad. The kid had been eight, he didn’t deserve that. He wanted to make everything better, to fix their relationship. To build it. After all, he always wanted a little brother.  
His first order of business was to make up for the two birthdays he had missed.  
Jason was ten now.  
Tim had it all planned out. He would take Jason around San Francisco and buy him some pizza and ice cream, then he’d take him to all the bookshops in the area and get him as many as he’d like. Finally, they would watch ‘Phantom of the Opera’ which was showing at a theater near by the tower. He had gotten the tickets months ago and made sure they were going to be right under the chandelier.  
When he had told Jason before he left, the boy was practically vibrating. He had seen it a couple months before with Bruce but was still completely obsessed. He had completely freaked when the chandelier fell, but afterward he hadn’t stopped talking about it.  
Tim had asked for Jason to show up.  
He wasn’t there.  
Tim was incredibly suspicious as he went to the control room.  
As the elevator counted down past the bedroom floors, the others also seemed to feel the tension.  
He could cut it with a knife. It was rolling off everyone in a thick, almost visible mist.  
Something was very wrong. He needed to find out what’s happened. Bruce would have sent him a message. His phone was in the tower, his bedroom. He didn’t want to bring it to space, since it wouldn’t have been useful.  
He was about to press the button to his room when the elevator opened to Superboy standing in the living room. Jon looked like he was about to tell them that their dog died. Tim tensed further if that’s possible. Jon never looked like that.  
Jon took a deep breath and looked to be steadying himself.  
“Could everyone except Red Robin and Spoiler go to their rooms?”   
Most of the team began voicing their disagreements, but one look from Jon caused half of them to leave immediately, the others started trickling out until all that was left was him, Stephanie, and Connor, who left giving him a small pat on the back.  
Everyone was gone, and Jon looked like he was about to collapse.  
“Damian killed the Joker,” He said in a small breath, almost too quiet to hear, “Superman’s gone after him”  
Tim was… Confused. He knew about Damian’s backstory. He knew about the assassins. He also knew that Damian didn’t want to kill. That it had been nearly a decade since his last kill.  
“Why?” was all he could get out. It felt like his heart was squishing, squeezing.   
“I don’t know, he didn’t tell me, nether of them did.”  
This wasn’t right. Why would Damian kill the Joker now? The Joker must have gone too far, but where was the Joke?  
Tim slipped past Superboy, nearly running to the computer. Something was gravely wrong.  
Hacking into the Batcave systems through the main computer he clicked onto Damian’s profile. Scrolling past the familial relations he had to stop and go back. One of the names was written in a bright red.  
Going back to look, his heart stopped.  
Jason Peter Todd  
He clicked the name, sending him to Jason’s files.  
There. Right underneath the picture of Jason that’s probably a year or so old, showing an eight, maybe nine-year-old kid glaring at the camera in a vest that seemed to be from Gotham academy.  
Status: Unknown  
It was blocked, probably only Bruce was able to see it. He knew Bruce’s passwords.  
As the password was entered, he couldn’t help but beg silently for him to be okay.  
The red name meant he was unavailable. The reasons could range from retired to... He couldn’t think like that. Jason was alright. He would laugh about this panic one day. He was watching Phantom of the Opera with Jason today. He was going to buy all the books in every bookshop in San Francisco. He was going to make up with Jason and make fun of his favorite pizza. He was going to be a big brother!  
“Tim” Steph said, voice breaking.  
The screen stared at him. It mocked him with one simple, terrible word. The worst word in existence.  
He shoved himself out of the chair.  
This wasn’t right. He is his brother. He is so young. He IS! Jason can’t be dead. He just can’t. It’s impossible.  
It happened nearly a month ago.  
Jason was still nine.  
He didn’t even reach the double digits.  
After all Jason had gone through, all that fighting to survive, and it meant nothing.  
Nothing to the evil, vile, piece of…  
He was glad the monster was gone.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, this was heavily inspired by Nightwing's reaction.

He blanked on the way to Gotham. One second in the control room, stepping out on the Batcave platform the next. Steph stayed at the tower.   
Only Batman was there. Good.  
His eyes were drawn to a new feature in the Batcave.   
A clear display. A torn-up Robin costume.  
His heart ached. It was so small. Jason was still so malnourished, but he was getting better. He was supposed to have a growth spurt soon. Tim could just picture a taller Jason joking about how Tim was the short one.  
As he stared down the costume, he could imagine all the possibilities that had been taken away. He wanted to see Jason grow up, fill his mantle, and grow out of it. He wished he could see his little brother pick up a new name, he wanted to help him with collage admissions and cheer at his graduation. Would he have gone to collage? He liked school, from what Bruce had told him, and he hoped Jason wouldn’t follow in Tim and Damian’s footsteps.  
He would never find out, now.  
His little brother.  
Bruce tensed as he got closer, but Tim could barely see him through the blurriness. When had he started crying? Had it been before or after he entered the cave?  
“Tim-” Bruce was hesitant.   
“Why didn’t you tell me?” was the first thing he said. It felt stupid, asking, but he needed to know why Bruce hadn’t told him. Bruce knew the codes to send him a message through space. He could have even sent one of the league members, heck, Superboy had gone to him at the tower, why couldn’t Bruce send someone? He was out of the loop for weeks! He had been allowed to plan and grow exited to fix their relationship, only for him to find out that a lot of that time his brother was gone.  
Bruce didn’t answer. Of course not. There was no good reason other than grief.  
Tim turned back to the display and felt a cold chill run up his spine. He felt-responsible. He turned to Bruce slightly.  
“How did he…”  
“He left.” He didn’t say anything more, didn’t give any detail. Tim rubbed at his eyes with his sleeve, clearing them of tears.  
“Why?”  
“He wanted to find his mother.” He wasn’t even looking at Tim, eyes focused on the computer.  
Tim felt his heartbeat in his throat.  
Jason had gone out to find his family and died because of it. If only Tim had been kinder to him, if he had just looked past his pride, maybe Jason would still be there with them.  
“He was so young” he whispered to himself, but apparently Bruce heard, since he stood abruptly and turned to Tim, his cape flowing freely cutting an imposing figure. He glared at Tim as if he were just some rogue pissing him off.   
“Yes.” Tim could feel the confrontation from a mile away. He didn’t want to argue, he really didn’t, not so soon after Jason.  
“Bruce?”  
“He was out too soon, he was impatient, irrational, impulsive,”  
“Bruce, stop” he tried to make his voice gentle.  
“He never listened to orders,”  
“Just like all of us!” he interrupted. He wasn’t going to let this happen. He wasn’t going to let Bruce reduce Jason to a cautionary tale.  
“And all of you could have died!” Bruce was shouting now, “He was untrained and not ready and if you had stayed, he wouldn’t have been on the streets!”  
His heart pounded, hearing the words from Bruce was so much worse than from the pesky voice in his head. Now they were out. Now they were true.  
“Are you blaming me for his death?” could hear his voice break, but Bruce payed that no mind, his voice became steadier as he asked, “How long did you train him before letting him out? A month? A week?”  
Tim almost didn’t dodge the fist coming toward him.  
He wasn’t able to jump back far enough to miss the kick. He fell to the ground, arm wrapped around his waist. It would bruise, but nothing more.  
Bruce glared at him from above.  
“Don’t you dare blame me. Get out.”  
And he did.  
He left Gotham, left the country. He spent more time in space than on solid ground. He avoided Bruce for that time. He would only go back to Gotham to place flowers on Jason’s grave. Sometimes he would sit there for hours just talking to the brother he never got to have.  
Two years later he came back to Gotham fully. He and Bruce’s relationship was still rocky, but he needed to do what was right.  
Dick was nine when Bruce took him in. He was a natural, and it seemed like he was born to be Robin. Still, he wasn’t allowed on patrol until a year later, and only if he was under watch at all times. Bruce would not let the same fate come to Dick. None of them would.  
As much as he tried to stop it, Jason still became a cautionary tale. A warning to Dick and the rest of the family about listening to orders. About looking where you leap.  
To him, it was a warning about how fragile their lives were. He wasn’t going to repeat his mistake. He wasn’t going to let Dick feel unappreciated. Feel like he needed to prove himself, or to find someone who loved him.  
He wouldn’t let Dick become like Jason. He wouldn’t let Dick die alone in a warehouse beaten and betrayed.  
He’s learned from history, and he will never allow it to repeat.


End file.
